Civilized Society v2.0

As I have written many times, I don’t believe that government is an absolute necessity for creating and maintaining a civilized society. In this essay, however, I would like to throw as many bones as possible to (not at) those who would take up for the loyal opposition. In fact, I will concede here for argument’s sake that all the historical and empirical evidence used to illustrate the correlation between government and civil society over the last few millennia right on up to today is all true and irrefutable. You win: The only way we humans ever got civilized (to the extent that we actually are) was through the graces of government.

Quite often, this historical inevitability and current state of the world is the entirety of the ammunition carried and used by those who support the government-is-necessary idea. That’s how it is now and that’s how it’s always been, and it works. Certainly not perfectly, but it works.

Sure, some brief forays into government-less societies occasionally have sprung up, but for the most part, it’s been governments all the way back. What did those trivial few government-less societies ever accomplish? Who has even heard of them? And more importantly, where are they now?Read the full thing »